


Ring of Fire

by dreamsofspike



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-29
Updated: 2014-12-29
Packaged: 2018-03-04 04:09:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2911196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamsofspike/pseuds/dreamsofspike
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean rescues Cas from a terrible fate. At least... that was the plan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ring of Fire

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TarlanX (Tarlan)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/gifts).



> Warnings: implied offscreen non-con/abuse, implied future non-con/abuse, slavery, collaring

“Cas… Cas, calm down, all right? I can’t understand a damn word – what happened?”

 

Dean’s never seen Cas this shaken, this utterly panicked. And he shouldn’t be, should he? Not anymore. After all, Dean found him, killed the creeps who were holding him against his will. He’s been missing for months, and there’s no way of knowing how much he’s been through in that time – not until he’s stable enough to tell the story himself.

 

But he’s safe now; Dean’s gonna take him home and make sure he’s okay and there’s absolutely no reason for the angel to be so fucking _terrified_ , refusing to get up off his knees, shaking and clinging to Dean’s arms as if the contact is the only thing holding him together at all.

 

“You’ve got to – to get it off,” Cas whispers, frantic and pleading. “Dean, please… _get it off_!”

 

“Get it…” Dean frowns, shaking his head. “Get what off?”

 

Cas releases one of Dean’s arms, raises trembling fingers to the side of his throat – and it’s then that Dean sees it. Just a thread’s width, silver and shimmering and not appearing to be made of anything material at all, wrapped around Cas’s neck. Dean reaches out to touch it, oddly mesmerized – and feels a light sting that makes him swiftly withdraw his fingers.

 

Cas collapses on his face to the floor with an anguished cry. Alarmed, Dean reaches down to pull him up again. “Cas? What is it? Where does it hurt?”

 

“E-everywhere,” Cas sobs out, shoulders shaking, head lowered. “Please, you have to get it off…”

 

“It’s that – that string – collar thing, isn’t it? But – I can’t touch it, Cas,” Dean points out. “Not without hurting you, so – so we need to get home and figure out how to get it off there, all right?”

 

“There’s a r-ring,” Cas tells him, looking up at him with wide eyes, as if just remembering. “He wore it – their leader. It – it controls the collar. If you d-destroy it, the collar will be destroyed as well.”

 

Dean nods, seeks out the body of the guy who seemed to be calling the shots. He sees a shimmering circle on the man’s finger; it looks as if his own fingers should go right through it, rather than being able to touch it, and he’s half afraid that if he does touch it, it’ll hurt both him and Cas like touching the collar did.

 

But he can and does touch it, pick it up, cup it in his hand – and nothing happens.

 

Cas’s shoulders fall with relief, and he lets out a deep, shaky breath as Dean comes and crouches beside him, placing a supportive arm around him.

 

“What do you think, Cas, fire?” he suggests, uncertain. “Will that do the trick?”

 

“Yes,” Cas replies. “If you burn the ring the collar will burn away as well. It’s designed to bind an angel’s grace to the will of the one wearing the ring.”

 

Dean frowned, looking down at the shiny ethereal piece of jewelry in his hand. “What exactly does that mean?” he asks with concern. “What did he do to you, Cas?”

 

Cas looks down in shame, one arm wrapping around his torso as he swallows hard and whispers, hushed and hoarse. “Wh-whatever he wanted. He – gave me orders and – if I failed to obey the collar would – p-punish me.”

 

Dean thinks of the way Cas has refused to leave his knees thus far, and his mouth goes dry. He wants to feel horrified, but the faint stirring low in his gut is… something else. Something _worse_.

 

“He – he made you stay on your knees, didn’t he?”

 

Cas nods, dejected. “He made me do – many things.”

 

Dean’s thumb slowly, gently strokes back and forth against the bare skin of Cas’s arm, and he finds himself asking, his own voice gone low and a little shaky, “… Like what?”

 

Cas looks up at him sharply, panic in his eyes, and shakes his head. “N-no, I – I don’t want to…”

 

Dean’s imagination is racing away with him, filled with thoughts of Cas, kneeling and naked as he is, shamed and degraded and touched in ways he’d never have chosen. Dean doesn’t know exactly what this guy demanded of his angel, but he’s been to Hell and back, literally, and he’s got an idea.

 

He’s got several, actually.

 

The pace of his heartbeat picks up a notch, and he closes his eyes to shut out the images in his head that aren’t exactly nightmares – aren’t even close.

 

They would be, to Cas.

 

But… angels need direction, that much is clear from the past few years. On their own, they just get themselves and everyone else into trouble. This guy who hurt Cas – the guy Dean killed for it – he was a bad dude, but – he might have had a good idea. Dean ponders, rolling the ring over and over in his hand.

 

“Dean,” Cas whispers, fingers trembling and cold and hesitant on Dean’s wrist. “Please… please just… throw it in the fire. Please. I – I just want… I want to go home. With you.” His words are desperate, yearning, and as he speaks he rests his head against Dean’s shoulder. Dean can feel the heaving of his deep, shuddering breaths, and he tightens his arm around Cas for a moment, reassuring.

 

“We will,” he promises. “We will, Cas, in just a minute…”

 

He stares into the glowing circle in his hand, a burning temptation like none he’s ever faced before – and then falls in headlong, as he slips it onto his finger. He rises to his feet, and Cas stares up at him with slowly mounting horror in his eyes.

 

“Dean?” he whispers, betrayed and disbelieving. His eyes close and he lowers his face to rest against the top of Dean’s shoe, shaking his head, despairing. “Dean… _please_ …” he sobs out brokenly. “Please… please _don’t_ …”

 

“Don’t worry, Cas,” Dean assures him, crouching and reaching down to touch the back of his head. “It’s okay… look at me.”

 

Cas doesn’t – and then his entire body tenses and he bites back a cry of pain. He raises his head, obedient, tears streaking his face as he looks up at Dean with heartbreak in his eyes. Dean gives him a gentle, reassuring smile, cupping his cheek and leaning in to kiss his wet, trembling lips.

 

“Don’t worry, Cas,” he whispers an earnest promise. “I’m gonna take real good care of you.”


End file.
